So as not to overload my feeble old man's brain, I'm going to split my review of this year's Middelfart tournament into small, random, and probably fragmented installments.
When I think about the weekend, the first thing that comes to mind is - what happened to all the teams and players? Jan D. mentions thinking the same thing in Randers. Kasper mentions in his blog that Hvidovre couldn't come because of their own tournament. Of course, DHG has also dropped their elite men's team and Randaberg from Norway also canceled their trip to the tournament. I wasn't around for last year's tournament, but I know that the year before had at least five to six more teams than this year.
Where did everyone go? Is it just a matter of fewer teams deciding to come to the tournament? Or is it a matter of fewer players and therefore fewer teams? One thing's for sure, there is a severe shortage of middles in Denmark right now. Aarhus has one. Middelfart has one. Gentofte is using less experienced players. If things keep going in this direction I might switch over and look for a contract as a middle for next year...
Seriously though, I'm slightly worried about the thinning out of the elite division. Maybe it's just an off year, a random variation or global warming, but I hope that we aren't seeing the start of a trend. Everywhere I look, it seems that someone is stopping volleyball, buying a house, getting married and having kids.
In any case, I haven't heard a whole lot about more quality players coming up from the youth divisions so I don't really know where the players are supposed to come from. Maybe some of the old guys will get bored with playing in the second division and try to make a come back into the elite. It would be nice to see some rosters with more than seven or eight players on them...
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4 comments:
I think you have a good point Jordan.
If you see the recent posts in Williams blog he'´s also concerned with the shortcommings of players in the elite division.
It startet some years ago and now it's almost impossible to think of a team who does not miss players og use foreignors like yourself.
I don't see semi professional players as a weakness but if all clubs think about short term succes volleyball in Denmark face some serious tasks.
Gentofte is a club with 100% focus on this and look at their progress in youth. They might not win the title this year but they continuasly build up players and attract good players in the Copenhagen area. Other teams (Middelfart, SK Århus and partly your own focus a lot on results rather than talent development.
It is the same i Sweden. There is a lack of players and som focus on performing now = buying players and building up sponsors and econmy and others focus on talent and save the ressources.
I think the holy grail is somewhere in between but also that this is a thing Scandinavian volley needs to addres seriously.
My present club Örkelljunga drowned in succes a couple of years ago and had to fire the coach and now they focus on getting back on the right results track throug foreign players but also use ressources for building up a "new" youth tradition.
I think they use to many ressources on players vs. talent development but they also have a much larger income from sponsors relying on good media and branding through local elite sports doing good results.
I think however that a lot of clubs need to work out a strategy for keeping and building the talents and at the same time being able to perform. If not we might loose the foundation of the sport: The players.
I tried to look for your article in Volleymag. Let me know when it's online. I always enjoy reading about your volleyball.
Martin
Hey Jordan.
As Martin wrote its also a topic ive taken up.
Also started making a spreadsheet showing which youth clubs have made eliteplayers who are active.
First of the articles is this one:
http://jasguda.blogspot.com/2007/09/hvor-er-drengene-krydret-med.html
But yes it is a severe problem.
/William
Most people have seen this coming for some years now. We have had way too few players coming through the youth system at least since the mid 90's.
I hope this will change but probably not significantly for the next five years or more. So this is a major issue, which is going to get bigger.
By the way, in Hvidovre we have a 14 man roster!
I just wanted to add: I really don't think more people are stopping now compared to ten years ago.
We just have fewer young players coming through to fill their places.
When you're getting to an age of around 30, it's pretty natural to want to focus on your job, buy a house and have kids. And for most of the Danish players in the elite division, volleyball is not their job.
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